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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27425326">When the Stars Lie</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HowDidIGetHere/pseuds/HowDidIGetHere'>HowDidIGetHere</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(because he may talk later but idk), 2nd chapter comes out and i'm just as suprised as you are, Characters to be added, Dogs Mentioned, Humanformers, M/M, Medieval AU, OCs Mentioned - Freeform, Post War, Rating May Change, Selectively Mute Character, Tags to be added, after shadowzone, ask to tag, i am winging this whole story, i have no idea what i'm writing but i AM writing, mainly because I have no idea what I'm doing lmao, no beta we die like men, warnings will most likely change</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:08:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,286</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27425326</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HowDidIGetHere/pseuds/HowDidIGetHere</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Two years, twenty-seven days, three hours, fifteen minutes, and nineteen seconds.</p>
<p>That's how long Soundwave has been gone, stuck in the Shadowzone. Rumor has it the war ended, however Soundwave managed to land in the middle of nowhere and has no clue what horrors Prime and his posse at doing will he's face first in dirt. </p>
<p>Luckily a lil astronomer is more up to date than he seems.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cosmos/Soundwave</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>When the Stars Lie</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     Two years, twenty-seven days, three hours, fifteen minutes, and nineteen seconds. <br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     All that time spent and lost thanks to some rebel kids in knight armor. It was an embarrassing loss, Soundwave can admit that, but it was embarrassing because it shouldn't have happened. He shouldn't have been gone this long. He shouldn't have allowed Megatron to do half the things Megatron did. Now he's stuck and stranded on the forest floor not too far off of a tiny, unknown village two years, twenty-seven days, three hours, fifteen minutes, and nineteen seconds later.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     The main thoughts going through his head were, I'm hungry and how does a tall, slender, scary, black knight get let into a village pretending to be a traveler? At dusk? To get up would require a lot of effort from this weary knight. Plus trying to find food in the dark would also be a challenge as night threatened to creep in any second now. It was a tough problem, but luckily with modern day solutions Soundwave was able to tackle it quickly. By blacking out with a thump. <br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     The next day was a mess. Mainly because when Soundwave first awoke he forgot what had happened. Why was he lying on the forest floor? More importantly, why was he able to touch the leaves on the forest floor? That's when he remembered that he had managed to pry himself out of the Shadowzone. Of course, the place he landed outside of the Shadowzone was a very unfortunately steep cliff. Which is why Soundwave was battered and bruised with dented armor. Honestly if he approached the village now perhaps they'd be too busy wondering why there are branches wedged between his armor to recognize him as Soundwave, Megatron's feared second in command.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     The biggest struggle was getting himself off the ground. Soundwave was well acquainted with pain, but the thought of everything being different for the worse was enough to drop his motivation. Nonetheless he pulled himself together and with the sacrifice of a few branches off of a small tree as he leaned his weight on it to haul himself up. Looking at him as an outsider you'd probably guess he was drunk or had just gotten off a rough boat ride. A little bit of a sad sight if he wasn’t practically starving to death on the spot. The Shadowzone didn’t have easy access, if any, to food.<br/>
<br/>
     Task one, stand up, had been completed without too many bumps. The rest of the tasks were to get into the village. Tasks plural because this would not be a one step operation. No, it'd be too nice of the universe to make this easy. At least, that's what he thought until he realized this was a rural farming village. With the dawn just starting to creep in, he doubted anyone was awake to catch him.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     The first farm he came across looked the easiest to break into. It was a simple wood building with acres of farmland that was bare due to harvest season having just passed. Whether it was harvest or early planting season was hard to tell. The house's straw roofing seemed to be desperately in need of a replacement. The roof would probably fall apart in a few months as it looked like there was a hole or two. The house had a small fence around the front of it that connected to stone walls that surrounded the east, west, and south of the house. The south side of the house was facing the forest. Inside those walls was the house, of course, a small shed and the stables. Outside of the walls, the walls were lined with bushes or weeds of varying kinds that were unkempt and would soon threaten to grow over the other side. The stables weren't too big so it was safe to assume they didn't have too many animals. There was a gate to the east of the house that was the way out to the fields. He could steal bread here, but he was never one to prey on the poor. That's what the Autobots were for. However, surely they wouldn't notice if a few of those nice clothes hanging out to dry went missing right?<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     Of course, that was easier said than done.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     When Soundwave approached the house he could see a chicken coop and three hounds lazily sleeping outside the chickens' fence. The chicken coop was only ten feet from the clothes line. Not only were there enough chickens to fill a small coop and three hounds that wouldn't hesitate to rat him out, he also didn't know if anyone was home.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     Soundwave pulled off his extra armor outside of the wall to avoid any unnecessary sound. He also took off his insignia stamped gardbraces just in case this is an Autobot village. Thankfully he wasn’t too heavily armored when he was zapped into the Shadowzone, he would not have the patience to take off all of that armor. After he pried off mainly his outer protective layer he stowed it away under a blueberry bush surrounded by brambles so no passersby could find it without looking for it. With only a breastplate, his gauntlets, his greaves, his two swords in a sheath around his waist, and a satchel with a small amount of coins he set off to, well, steal. (Of course he did have a padded vest and padded breeches, however walking into a village in basically knight underwear is not ideal.) Now I know what you're thinking, why doesn't he just buy some clothes? Well, what would you think if a black knight in obviously elite and expensive armor showed up to your market stall to buy commoner clothes? Then he showed up again later in those clothes pretending he was never a knight? <br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     Anyways.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     Soundwave cautiously approached the gate that connected to the fields. If the dogs expected noise from anywhere this early, it'd be the gate leading out to the fields. And guessing by the worn down state of the gate, it saw plenty of uses. Carefully he poked his hand through the gap between the stone wall and the gate in order to unlock it. He managed to open the latch and quietly push the gate open. Due to all the wear and tear the bottom of the gate dragged against the dirt so Soundwave had to lift it up a smidge in order to prevent it from dragging. When Soundwave turned around to face the house after he slowly shut the gate he was greeted to three sets of puppy eyes begging him for food he didn't even have.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     All of the dogs were old, he realized, now that he was up close. Slowly he lifted a finger to his mouth to urge the dogs to be silent and held the other hand out in front of him. All three of them eagerly sniffed and licked his gauntlet as if expecting food to be hidden under one of the armor plates somewhere. Despite being lousy guard dogs when it comes to barking they sure did a good job at trying to trip the knight as he attempted to get over to the clothesline. Never before had Soundwave been so appreciative that people were sleeping instead of being productive. He wouldn't know what to do if he saw someone watching him dance around like a drunkard to avoid stepping on any of the dogs' paws and mud to prevent any tracks. The hounds were relentless as Soundwave eased around the chicken coop with enough space to fit a horse in hopes that somehow the resting chickens' wouldn't awaken. He definitely wasn't an assassin in his prime right now because if anything awoke the farmer, it'd be the sound of his stomach growling.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     After the most embarrassing trek of his life Soundwave finally made it to the clothesline. All of the clothes were obviously commoner clothes. Plain tunics, breeches, two differently sized dresses, and a shirt with long sleeves. The only thing he found odd was that on the coats there were no insignias. Normally Autobot's have a dumb red insignia smack dab in the front of their chests and from what he could see there was not a speck of purple for Decepticons on the entire coat. Perhaps this was one of the few remaining neutral villages, too far off to be affected by the war. Maybe the Autobots decided to have it no longer required for their men to have their insignias or traditional clothing when they won the war. Just kidding, the Primes are too far up on their high horses for that.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     Soundwave grabbed the least special looking set of clothes on the line. Before he left he put a few coins in the pocket of the breeches closest to him. Not only would that pay for a brand new set of the clothes he stole, it would probably pay for a few bags of feed or maybe a cheap meal. After he made sure the coins wouldn't fall out Soundwave slowly slinked back to where he had hidden his armor. It was easier getting out than in because the excitement of having someone new inside the fence had worn out the dogs.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     After a quick change of clothes behind the wall where he left his armor he realized he'd definitely need a better hiding spot. Especially since he's gotta hide almost a full suit of knight armor. If someone found this it'd probably be their lucky day because his armor was not cheap. He'd also realized that whoever these clothes belonged to before was tiny. The breeches stopped a little below his knee and would fold up to his knee whenever he crouched down. The shirt sleeves were far too short and instead of the cuffs resting on his wrists like they were supposed to they sat mid forearm. Luckily the shirt was just long enough to be tucked into his breeches. Though, if he pulled his arms up over his head it’d fling up as if he had the belly of an old innkeeper. It definitely wasn’t the most ideal outfit but it matched his armor enough he could wear his geaves to make up for the fact the breeches were short. His greaves connected to black metal knee pads though all of his armor was more of a dark blue-grey. The bottom of his shin armor was wide at the sides and pointed up at the sides in a v shape. As for the boots themselves, he was way too dignified to wear those ugly sabatons that did more tripping than helping. A leather boot with iron built into it at the front worked just as well. As extra protection he did have a curved metal he pulled over the bridge of his shoe and tied under it below the heel. Hopefully, despite the gauntlets, grieves, black scarf, and double swords in matching scabbards on his waist he didn’t look too out of place. <br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     When he entered the village he looked very out of place. He imagined he’d look like a rogue in a village of old rogues or rebels, now retired, as most farming villages do nowadays. However, when he instead realized he would look like a very strange traveller in the middle of peasants that dodged the war. Soundwave didn’t think any town, village, or city had managed to dodge the war, but here was this village to prove that wrong. Luckily there was no official entrance with walls or patrols. The most official it got was a dirt road into the town and a pathetic broken sign that read, ”Now Visiting Nowhere” in worn down letters. This was also good because there was a wanted and missing poster with his knight helmet plastered on the front of both. Nobody had seen his face back in the day long enough to recall any of it, and nobody would see it today either. He had taken with him a metal visor that covered his face and tied around the back of his head. While small villages are definitely weaker, word spreads fast.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     It wasn't long before the streets were buzzing with talk of a new guy. Soundwave didn't stop to correct anything anyone said about him though. The village consisted of a few shops that doubled as houses that had little hanging signs to say what each shop was. Other than that there were houses and stables. If Soundwave were to take a guess how many people lived here off of the building count he’d say five hundred. If he were to take a guess off of how many people he’d seen he’d say fifty, and even that was a generous guess. It was fairly early as it had just become golden hour but he had expected more people awake. Speaking of awake, the only thing keeping him from falling asleep again was his stomach reminding him he hasn’t eaten in two full years.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     Soundwave found the closest food shop to him which was a little fruit and vegetable cart along the road set up outside of a house. On the front was painted,”Harvester’s harvest” with a smaller, finer,”and wife!” painted above Harvester’s. Considering there was a little old lady in a gardener’s apron working the stall, Soundwave realized this was And Wife.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     “Greetings! What brings you here?” And Wife asked warmly. She had a rather raspy voice and looking at all the stall offered it was probably because of a bad year.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     "Food." Soundwave signed as simple and clear as he could, pointing to the vegetables in the stall in hopes that she would understand common sign language. He knew common sign language was, well, common, but it was common for that fact that it was often used in both sides’ military plans to avoid overhearing. It also involved a lot more reliability on facial expressions than he liked to show. Decepticons had to learn Decepticon specific sign language which was basically common language gone complicated. He knew some Autobots knew common sign language because Bumblebee is a mute to an extent too. Also because they thought Soundwave might have been deaf too and tried to sign their way through interrogation. Not very intimidating.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
    Soundwave selected three of the best apples from the bunch and handed the woman three coins. She turned them over in her hand as if she had never seen coins in decent shape before. Then again, they haven't been used in two whole years. Nonetheless he could feel the curiosity that the state of the well polished coins spiked in the woman. <br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     Soundwave quickly moved on from that stall. Looking like a rogue straight out of prison was already suspicious enough. He didn't need somebody getting curious about why a rogue that looked like a mishmash of knight and peasant had coins that were so shiny you could see your reflection in them. Were they stolen? Definitely. Stolen two years ago though. Plus he doubted the dead knight he stole them off of would have been too bothered by a few missing coins. Just to be clear, the knight was dead before he got there.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     Soundwave immediately devoured the three apples as soon as he got to a quieter street. The quieter street seemed to have an inn that was pretty well kept due to the fancy stables and the well polished sign. If Soundwave could stake out here for cheap, maybe he could find something to hold his armor in or maybe even get a horse. Of course, for a horse he’d have to find some type of work but inns were a great place to find work.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     Soundwave opened the door to the inn carefully, the innkeeper should be awake by now. On the inside it seemed to open up to a tavern, which wasn’t entirely uncommon. Innkeepers would often do food as a side job for extra money. Everything was dimly lit with lamps save for the area around the fireplace by the stairs on the right.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     “Can I help you?” Piped a man from behind the counter as he started shelving glass mugs that he probably cleaned from last night.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     “How much for a night?” Soundwave signed as he sat down at the bar that was front and center from the front door. Albeit his common sign language signing was rather rusty and probably didn’t translate that well. <br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     Pause. Silence.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     Apparently he’d just run into the first person who didn’t understand so far. The bartender set out two different sheets of paper in front of him, one was how much nights cost and the other was for how much food at the bar cost. There were two prices for nights, one was probably a higher quality room judging how there was a cheap option and a not so cheap option. The prices weren’t too horrible if he was being completely honest, however he would definitely need to find a job if he wanted to stay more than two days in a dirt cheap room. Inns usually held a work board that contained wanted posters and actual work on them though, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find a job. After a quick look over the tavern again, he spotted the board sitting next to the stairs. Most likely so it’d catch the eye of those staying the night. <br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     Soundwave pointed to the cheapest option for a room and took out the coins to cover it. It was hard spending coins because normally he could just camp out somewhere in the dark and leave without a trace. However the Shadowzone left him in poorer shape then he’d like to admit.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     “I’ll show you to your room then.” The barkeep slid out from behind the bar after pocketing the coins. Soundwave stalked after him over to the staircase. Up the staircase was a hallway that split at the end to the left and right which made it look connected to another hallway. There seemed to be rooms on all sides of the building up here. However, the rooms couldn’t be too big with the lack of spacing between them. Soundwave could vaguely make out the start of another staircase on the right, though it was hidden down the second hallway. The barkeep stopped at the last door on the right and handed Soundwave a key, ”remember, any damages come out of your pocket." Soundwave nodded before the bartender disappeared down the stairs again. Even though he'd only eaten three apples, he figured it was better to rest now. After all, he'd have to go looking for a job as soon as possible if he didn't want to have to decide between a roof over his head or his next meal.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     When Soundwave opened the door, he didn't know what he was expecting. He did choose the cheapest option. He was expecting something like rotting wood floors, peeling walls, maybe not even a mattress. What he was not expecting was a roommate with papers all over both sides of the room that, if Soundwave wasn't somewhat educated, could have been mistaken for witchcraft. His roommate looked up at Soundwave from where they were sitting at a desk in the back of the room between the beds.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     Pause. Silence.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
     "O-oh hi! I'm Cosmos!! They told me the cheapest option meant having a roommate but I didn't expect one this soon! Especially with how small this town is." Cosmos frantically tried to scoop up all the papers off of what Soundwave assumed would be his side of the room. If this was his roommate, it was going to be a long night.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Author here, this Soundwave is Prime Soundwave btw. Just incase you got confused.<br/>I have never written a character that uses sign language before so if I got anything wrong please let me know so I can adjust it. I tried researching the best I could but it may still be wonky.<br/>Also let me know if I wrote something weirdly or spelled something wrong because I most likely did lmao.</p>
<p>Two warnings!<br/>One: I will not regularly update because I'm ridiculously busy.<br/>Two: Do not expect this to follow canon! I have no idea what's going on half the time and you bet I'm going to 100% wing it!</p>
<p>(Also Soundwave goes by he/they, it just depends. He's refered to as he in this chapter though. That'll probably be explained later,,)</p>
<p>That's all!! Please leave any feedback I took forever on this believe it or not.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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